An Added Sweetener for Buyers of Failures

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has not guaranteed the bad assets of every bank in receivership sold in recent months, but it has offered what some bankers and lawyers say is an incentive for companies considering buying a failed institution.

Using part of a law enacted during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, the FDIC is allowing acquiring banks to walk away from leases and contracts they do not want, without financial obligation, once they acquire a failed institution. The FDIC initially gives the buyer 90 days but has shown a willingness to extend that period as companies decide which contracts they want and which they do not want.